KENNINGTON MAN WINS £17,000 PAYOUT AFTER VENEERS TREATMENT GOES WRONG

A freelance butler has successfully sued a Harley Street dentist after a series of mistakes with the preparation and fitting of new veneers.

Instead of seven new veneers, Meo Mattioli of Lorrimore Square in Kennington, has been left with a mishmash of crowns and veneers.

His dentist, Mr Simon Darfoor, of Darfoor Dental Practice, 1 Harley Street, settled the case out of court last month.

Italian-born Meo, who has been living in London for 20 years, decided to invest in veneers having seen a WOWcher offer – eight veneers for £1700 – which he thought was worth investigating.

“Normally they are £400 each,” said Meo. “I had always wanted a better smile, I had a gap in my teeth at the front and thought it could be improved.”

Meo had used the WOWcher scheme before to get some implants done so he approached Mr Darfoor.

“I had a preliminary consultation and I quizzed him thoroughly on what to expect. He said under the terms of the offer we had to get it right first time, so no changing my mind on colour or length or anything. That was fine.”

At this stage Meo also did some additional research on the Internet into Mr Darfoor and discovered that he had received a warning from the General Dental Council (GDC) for not providing a fair description of treatment for a previous client.

“He was promising me a lot for the money,” continued Meo. “So I did grill him further on exactly what to expect and was satisfied with his responses. With hindsight I probably gave him the benefit of the doubt.”

Meo’s treatment started in April 2013.

He explained: “The first strange thing to happen was Mr Darfoor said we can do it all over a weekend. So take the impressions on a Friday and have the veneers fitted on Monday.

“In actual fact, recalled Meo, “he fitted temporary veneers on the Monday to see what they looked like and sent me away for a couple of weeks.

“They were really uncomfortable and the anaesthetic took hours to wear off, but I stuck with it and went back in to have the permanent veneers fitted.

Meo explained: “It was important to me that the veneers had a natural look and that was what I was getting. There were one or two imperfections which made them look a lot less fake. I was relatively happy at this point.”

Mr Darfoor then fitted the permanent veneers and Meo went home. Two or three days later one of the upper left veneers fell out, followed by several others.

“I went back in straight away and Mr Darfoor said they could put it right – some issue with the glue he thought.”

Unfortunately the surgery’s technician had lost Meo’s original template so they had to start again with new impressions. Finally Meo was fitted with new veneers.

“Two of them came off again,” said Meo, who went back in for a 3rd time. “I was not expecting this trial and error approach.”

It was middle of Summer 2013 by this time and Meo was due to go on holiday. “I was not at all sure they would stay in so Mr Darfoor sent me off with extra bonding gel and told me to be careful. It was ridiculous looking back.”

Shortly after getting back from holiday the veneers fell out again.

“I was really starting to lose faith now in Mr Darfoor,” said Meo and decided to consult a dentist friend.

Meo again: “He said all the messing about was really bad for my teeth and recommended I get a second opinion on what was going wrong from another dentist – also on Harley Street.”

The second dentist did a full screening and said that the job had been done all wrong. Meo again: “He told me that Mr Darfoor had not taken into account my particular chewing action – my lower jaw tended to push my upper jaw out. This was what was causing the veneers to fall out.

He said that the technician should have picked this up at the beginning.”

Meo did not go back to Mr Darfoor – who was by now chasing payment through solicitor letters – and instructed the Dental Law Partnership to take on his case.

Evidence presented to lawyer Heather Owen at the firm identified serious failings in the treatment provided by Mr Darfoor.

“My client went through wholly unnecessary suffering brought about by cosmetic dental care which fell far below the standards expected of Mr Darfoor.”

Meo said that he faces remedial treatment and is looking to make an official complaint to the GDC. “I don’t want anyone to have to go through what I did.”